


Scent

by EsculentEvil



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Ace the Bathound - Freeform, Arkham Asylum, Budding Love, Fluff and Angst, Humor, M/M, Romance, Scents & Smells, Slow Burn, fist kiss, joker venom
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-20 22:54:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17031495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EsculentEvil/pseuds/EsculentEvil
Summary: The Joker learns Batman's scent and thus Bruce Wayne's, too.Originally posted to my Tumblr @esculentevil





	1. Batman

**Author's Note:**

> Joker learns what Batman smells like: Kevlar, Gotham rain, and the aged wood of the manor.

The first time it happened, they had been fighting in Arkham's forest.

The Joker had just managed to escape, again, and was trying to loose the guards’ pesky dogs in the bush that thrived just outside of the asylum. Victory had seemed assured until one of the dogs proved to be more than a guard’s.

Being chased by Batman’s Great Dane was not that new so Gotham’s Clown Prince had a few ideas on what to do.

He snapped a branch off of a tree as he ran and filled it with Joker venom; suffice to say, he sort of had the resulting fist kiss coming.

* * *

 

Despite that, there was something very strange about that punch: the scent.

As someone who’s been fist kissed by Batman many times before, The Joker is sort of an expert on how that thick fist should smell: Gotham rain and Kevlar. So, when he got an additional waft of aged wood, he was understandably confused.

However, remembering that they were facing each other in Arkham’s forest, Joker quickly wrote the strange event off as transfer from a tree.

A ridiculously easy write off when there was no repeat—until there was.

* * *

 

The repeat happened in the middle of the city and near the end of October.

It was early in the morning—around the time that Batman would already be asleep—and The Joker had only just managed to get his plan up and running.

He’d been stalled by Harley and several other clowns beneath him being sick to their tummies after gorging themselves and each other on a ton of stolen candy.

Despite the set back, he’d managed to rig the entirety of Gotham with sugar bombs and was ready to force it to greet Halloween with sweet sweet chaos; until, of course, a very familiar hand was trying to take his nose off.

* * *

 

Old wood.

Cherry and cypress and cedar and cottonwood.

The caped crusader smells of more than just the city and his suit.

(He smells... of a home...)

* * *

 

The experience had, quite frankly, blown The Joker’s mind.

He wasn’t really sure what he should do in response to it.

(What  **does**  one do with information like this?)

In the end, his confusion resulted in capture.

* * *

 

The third time was the charm.

He was plotting how to get out of Arkham in time for Thanksgiving (So I can properly thank all of Gotham~ eHeh He He!) when Bruce Wayne passed him.

He was, apparently, inspecting his money-flow before a morning board meeting.

Their eyes locked when the billionaire obscured Joker’s vision of his cell’s lock and the scent of  **Batman**  wafted through the air holes of his cage’s wall.


	2. Bruce

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because Joker knows what Batman/Bruce Wayne smells like [Gotham rain, Kevlar, the manor], the bat-themed vigilante is finding it very hard to be sneaky/stealthy with him these days...

The first time he noticed, he had been trying to sneak up on the clown prince.

Historically a simple task as the villain is normally talking too much to hear him.

But, sometime in October or November, The Joker becomes oddly aware of him.

It takes a long time for Batman to realize it has nothing to do with his skills.

* * *

 

The second time is during an information run as Matches Malone.

He had been trying to get The Joker to spill the beans on an operation he was involved in with The Penguin; but the clown was proving to be stubborn.

It wasn’t until they were alone, however, that Batman understood why:

“O,  _Darling_ , you’d have to be  **batty**  to think I’d say anything~!”

* * *

 

The third time it happens is when he’s at his wit’s end.

The Joker seems to see through everything these days and it frightens him like nothing else: how is he to protect anyone when his greatest asset is useless?

How can he keep Gotham safe if Joker is always two steps ahead of him?

How was he to function if his opposite sees right through him?

* * *

 

At least, those were his fears before he understood what was happening.

He figured it out during the third instant when he tried facing Joker in Arkham.

He’d gone as Bruce Wayne: his last defense against the all-seeing madman.

And his walls  **crumbled**  under Joker’s smile: “Smell ya later, Darling~”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> xD Sorry, I couldn’t resist: Joker HAD to make that joke, ok, he HAD to!

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve covered what Joker smells like before in my asexual!Joker AU [ _[Acing the Leap](https://esculentevil.tumblr.com/post/173507259638/brujokes-acing-the-leap)_ ] and even modified it for his softer, Eric Border-like, _shy self_ “Jacque Carte” in my [_Prince of Cards_ AU](https://esculentevil.tumblr.com/post/178690575851/batjokes-prince-of-cards-4), but I’ve never really touched Bruce’s/Batsy’s smell or how Joker might feel about/react to it; so...


End file.
